feet for prehension: the object of Providence by this structure is to enable these animals to move about amongst the branches of the trees, which are their usual habitations, and to fix themselves securely upon them, so that they can use their hands to gather fruit or any other purpose. Thus also they can perambulate the trees with as much ease and safety as we do our houses; and run up and down the branches with as much celerity as we do our staircases: but they cannot make equal progress on the earth, or a plane surface, whether they go on four feet or two.

Even man himself, though he ordinarily cannot use his toes for prehension, yet is somtimes placed in such circumstances, as to acquire the power of doing so. I remember, when a boy, going to see a girl who was born without arms, and was exhibited by her parents to the public. She could use her toes as fingers; could hold scissors, cut out watch-papers, sew, and even write. An account was given in the St. James's Chronicle, not long ago, of a youth similarly circumstanced, who being cruelly turned out by his father, but patronized by his sister, learned to draw with his toes. In India they are used as fingers, and are sometimes called foot-fingers. The Hindoo tailor twists his thread with them, and the cook holds his knife while he cuts fish, vegetables, &c., the joiner, weaver, and other mechanics all use them for a variety of purposes; and I am told by a friend, who has often been in India, that they can even pick up pins with them.

We are now arrived at man himself, who, as we see, takes his particular denomination from the hand. He is the only Bimane. The physiology and anatomy of the Human Hand, that wonderful organ, have been explained and reasoned with great ability in a separate treatise, by the eminent comparative anatomist to whom that subject was assigned; I shall not, therefore, here say any thing on its structure and its uses: but as it has not been treated of as a moral organ; as being in intimate connexion with the heart and affections; as their principal index and premonstrator; and as the mighty instrument by which a great part of the physical good and evil which befals our race is wrought, I may be permitted to make a few observations upon it as far as these are concerned.

God made the body in general a fit machine, not only to ex ecute the purposes of its immaterial inhabitant the soul; but, in some sort, he made it a mirror to reflect all its bearings and character; to indicate every motion of the fluctuating sea within, whether its surges lift themselves on high elevated by

the gusts of passion; or all is calm, and tranquil, and subdued. None of the bodily organs, by its structure and station in the body, is so evidently formed in all respects for these functions as the HAND. The eye indeed is, perhaps, the most faithful mirror of the soul's emotion; yet though it may best pourtray and render visible the internal feeling, it can in no degree execute its biddings, but the hand is the great agent and minister of the soul, which not only reveals her inmost affection and feeling, and, in conjunction with the tongue-and these two in connection are either the most beneficent or maleficent of all our organs-declares her will and purpose; but is also employed by her to execute them. Thus HEART and HAND, the principle and the practice, have been united, in common parlance, from ancient ages. The carliest dawn of reason in the innocent infant is shown by the signs it makes with its little hands; by them it prefers its petitions for any thing it desires, and, in imitation of this, God's children are instructed to lift up holy hands in prayer. Love, friendship, charity, and all the kindly affections of our nature, use the hands as their symbol and organ; the fond embrace, the hearty shake, the liberal gift, are all ministered by them. Joy, gladness, applause, welcome, valediction, all use these organs to represent them. Penitence smites her breast with them; resignation clasps them; devotion and the love of God stretches them out towards heaven.

But the hands are not employed to express only the kindly affections of the soul. Those of a contrary and less amiable character use them as their index. Anger threatens, and more violent and hateful passions destroy by them. They are indeed the instruments by which a great portion of the evil, and mischief, and violence, and misery, that our corrupt nature has introduced into the world, are perpetrated.

The hand also, on some occasions, becomes the spokesman instead of the tongue. The fore-finger is denominated the inder, because we use it to indicate to another any object to which we wish to direct his attention. By it the deaf and dumb person is enabled to hold converse with others so as not to be totally cut off from the enjoyment of society; and by it we can likewise mutually communicate our thoughts when separated by space however wide, even with our Antipodes.

The Deity himself, also, condescends to convey spiritual benefits to his people by means of the hands of authorized persons, as in Confirmation and Ordination; and the Blessed Friend, and Patron, and Advocate and Deliverer of our race,

1 1 Tim. ii. 8.

when he was upon earth, appears to have wrought most of his miracles of healing by laying on his hands; in benediction also, when children were brought unto him he laid his hands on them; and at his ascension he lifted up his hands to bless his disciples.

To enumerate all the modes by which the internal affection of the soul is indicated by the hand would be an endless task. I shall therefore only further observe, that the greater part of the instances I have adduced are natural, and not conventional or casual modes of expressing feeling, as is evident from their being employed, with little variation, in all ages, nations, and states of society.

How grateful then ought we to be to our Creator for enriching us with these admirable organs, which, more than any outward one that we possess, are the immediate instruments that enable us to master the whole globe that we inhabit—not merely the visible and tangible matter that we tread upon, and its furniture and population, but even often to take hold as it were of the invisible substances that float around it, and to bottle up the lightning and the wind, as well as the waters. Thus by their means do we add daily increments to our knowledge and science, and consequently power; to our skill in arts and every allied manufacture and manipulation; to our comforts, pleasures, and every thing desirable in life.

If now-having arrived at the most perfect instrument, as to its uses, and the most important to the happiness and welfare of the human race, whether it be considered as an instrument of good or evil-we turn back, and review this long train of organs for every kind of motion, and every kind of operation, and consider moreover the animal to which each belongs with respect to its place and station, connexion, powers of multiplication, relative magnitude, form, composition, structure, functions, and at the same time take into further consideration the theatre upon which each is destined to appear, the medium in which it is to move and breathe, and the beings, whether vegetable or animal, with which it is to come in contact, and upon which it is to act,

When, I say, we take this review, what an infinite diversity in every respect bewilders our thought, and we are unable to form any distinct idea of the general effect and harmony that we know to be produced, nor how all these instruments, dovetail, as it were, so as to form the whole into one great fabric or sphere of agents, all contributing to fulfill the purposes of the

1 Mark, viii. 23-25,

2 Mark, x. 16, Luke, xxiv. 50,

Great Being who fabricated it, and promoting the general health and welfare of the whole system. But this we can understand that the Fabricator of this sphere must have taken a simultaneous survey of all the circumstances here mentioned; must have calculated the momentum of each individual, have weighed and measured it, so that it should not exceed a certain standard; must have seen at once all that it wanted to fit it for its station; must, before he made it, have formed a correct estimate of all the requisite materials, whether gaseous, aquiform, or solid, so as to put together the whole harmonious compages without failing in a single atom; and give full accomplishment to his will.

He who could effect all this, could only be one whose Understanding is infinite, and whose Power and Goodness are equally without bounds.

32*

CHAPTER XVIII.

On Instinct.

There is no department of Zoological Science that furnishes stronger proofs of the being and attributes of the Deity, than that which relates to the Instincts of animals; and the more so, because where reason and intellect are most powerful and sufficient as guides, as in man, and most of the higher grades of animals, there usually instinct is weakest and least wonderful, while, as we descend in the scale, we come to tribes that exhibit, in an almost miraculous manner, the workings of a Divine Power, and perform operations that the intellect and skill of man would in vain attempt to rival or to imitate. Yet there is no question, concerning which the Natural Historian and Physiologist seems more at a loss than when he is asked -what is INSTINCT? So much has been ably written upon the subject, so many hypotheses have been broached, that it seems wonderful so thick a cloud should still rest upon it. It must not be expected, where so many eminent men have more or less failed, that one of less powers should be enabled to throw much new light upon this palpable obscure, or dissipate all the darkness that envelopes the secondary or intermediate cause of Instinct. Could even the bee or the ant tell us what it is that goads them to their several labours, and instructs them how to perform them, perhaps we might still have much to learn before we should have any right to cry, with the Syracusan Mathematician, 'Evenza, I have unveiled the mystery. Still, however unequal to the task, I cannot duly discharge the duty incumbent upon me, who may be said to be officially engaged to prove the great truths of Natural Religion from the Instincts of the animal creation, to leave the subject of Instinct, considered in the abstract, exactly as I found it; a field, in which whoever perambulates may wander "in endless mazes lost." I will, therefore, do my best to make the way, in a small degree, more level, and less intricate, than it has hitherto been.

But, before I proceed, lest the reader should feel disposed to accuse me of contradicting the opinions on this subject stated in the Introduction to Entomology, I beg to direct his attention to the following paragraph in the advertisement to the third